UFO

It’s strange how a chance encounter (a true random connection) can bring back a flood of childhood memories. On one of the discussion forums that I frequent, one of the denizins had selected a new avatar. I recognized it immediately as one of the purple-wigged "moonbabes" from the television series UFO. Produced by the team of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, who were also responsible for Thunderbirds and Space:1999, the show ran for only one season in 1970. However, that "season" contained about as many episodes as several season’s worth of today’s series, 26 to be exact. In my opinion, UFO was by far the best of the Anderson creations.

The show was set in 1980, and dealt with the exploits of a super-secret organization whose mission was to protect earth against aliens that wanted to harvest organs from humans for their dying race. Despite that rather-strange sounding premise, the plots were plausible (mostly) and held true dramatic interest, rather than just being a showcase for special effects. This was welcome addition to the SciFi world in the void created by the demise of Star Trek’s original series.